Christmas Storm
by buggiekinsx
Summary: Betty arrives a few days early to the Lodges' Christmas cottage and meets Veronica's older brother for the first time. Sparks fly and the Lodges arrive to a small surprise on Christmas Day.


A/N: Bughead Secret Santa Gift for Bughead-is-riverdale on Tumblr :) Posting this kinda late on FF but oh well? I didn't intend for this to be a multi chap or I would've posted this earlier but somehow this happened. I'll be posting the other two parts at various points within the next week. A gift that keeps giving (kinda? does this really count? Idk!)

Merry Christmas (& a Happy New Year!)

/

White flurries cascaded around Betty as she lugged her suitcase through the snow. It was her first Christmas on her own per say. Since attending NYU, her relationship with her mother had been on the rocks and it had finally tipped over during Thanksgiving break. For once in her life, Betty had laid out everything she thought about the way her mother treated her and it was suffice to say- it did not end well. They hadn't been on speaking terms since and despite constant phone calls with her father & his multiple attempts to persuade her to come home for winter break, Betty was spending her break with a close friend she made at university.

Veronica Lodge had been Betty's saving grace since the beginning of the semester when she had promptly decided that they would be the best of friends once she laid eyes on Betty during their 10am. She spent the semester showing Betty New York and helping her break out of her small town persona.

And now here she was, at the Poconos, ready to spend Christmas with the Lodges in the cottage.

She drove down from New York by herself the Friday before Christmas hoping to find some serenity in the snow and the time alone. The Lodges had a few more things to take care of before they came down but Hermione assured her that they'd be down either on Christmas Eve or on Christmas morning before they all spent the week together.

Betty trudged up to the Lodge cottage with a loud huff as she approached the door. She stood there for a moment as she attempted to fish out the keys to the cottage with her mittens on. When she finally managed to get the door open, a burst of warmth and hot cocoa melted against her and she sighed happily. As she grabbed her suitcase, a wave of confusion hit her as she remembered Veronica mentioning that she'd have to kickstart the heat once she arrived but she shook the thought from her head, she was just happy to defrost.

She practically pranced into the warmth of the cottage before using her foot to slam the door shut behind her. As she cozied up to the warmth, she felt the house shake slight before hearing a large thump somewhere outside. She looked around confused about what just happened.

"Sounds like you just snowed us in" a silvery voice said through the silence causing Betty to jump.

She looked towards where the voice came from and she saw a man dressed in a plain wife beater with red plaid pj bottoms and a cute knit hat shaped like a crown. There was one curl that escaped from the beanie and rested on his forehead and a few freckles scattered around his face and neck. Betty felt herself getting a bit hot as she looked at him. A small smirk appeared on his face as he watched her check him out.

"Who are you?" she managed to spit out once she caught herself.

"I'm Jughead. You must be my sister's friend that's joining us for Christmas." He sounded slightly annoyed with her. She pondered for a moment and was able to distantly recollect his face from some of the pictures in the Lodge household.

"Jughead? She always calls you Fors-"

"I prefer Jughead" he interrupted her quickly.

"Oh, okay. Nobody mentioned to me that you'd be here, I'm Betty Cooper. It's nice to finally meet you!" A smile graced her face as she extended her arm towards him.

He smiled at her mannerism, a bit surprised that his spoiled little sister would be friends with a sweet girl like this. "It's nice to meet you too, Betty Cooper. My family doesn't know that I usually drive down here and stay a couple days before they get here, sometimes I just need some time away from it all."

"I understand, I'm sorry for just dropping in on you like this anyways & sorry for snowing us in… ?" she ended questionably, unsure of how that happened.

"It's fine. & you can't slam the front door, the snow from the roof slides down and blocks the door, that's the noise you heard. I lost track of how many times Veronica's snowed us in with her tantrums." A laugh escaped from his lips as he thought about his sister, Betty smiled as she saw him light up at the thought of his sister. "Anyways, don't mind me. There's some hot cocoa in the kitchen if you'd like, I'm probably gonna head up to my room for the rest of the day."

Betty smiled at him as he walked up the stairs and headed towards the kitchen to grab a cup of cocoa before settling herself in.

/

Jughead woke up to the smell of garlic bread assaulting his senses. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before mindlessly following the scent down the stairs and towards the kitchen. When he walked into the kitchen he saw the pretty blonde standing over the stove in an apron. She had the oven on and a pot of pasta on the stove. She was softly humming to herself when she turned and noticed Jughead by the kitchen door.

"Hey! Dinner will be ready in just a second" she smiled at him and he couldn't help but think about how breathtaking her smile was.

"You really didn't have to make dinner, we could've just thrown something together." He felt bad now that he spent all this time napping and here she was cooking up a storm for them.

"It's fine, I love cooking and I wanted to" she glanced at him before going to take off the pasta.

"Aaaaaand dinner is served!" She smiled proudly to herself before grabbing two plates for them.

They both took out their food before heading towards the living area. Betty plopped herself down on the loveseat and made herself comfortable while Jughead started towards the stairs.

"Thanks for making dinner, Betts."

The little nickname made her heart skip a beat and before she even had a chance to think about it, she invited him to watch something with her, "Hey! Why don't we watch something on tv together?"

Jughead stopped in his tracks and smiled before heading towards the couch. "Alright, we don't have cable up here though. There's a DVD room right in the hall there, your choice" he told her as he sat down on the long couch. He was happy she had the guts to ask him to say down here, he was coming up empty on excuses to be around her.

Betty nodded before heading towards the DVD room, she scanned through the rows of DVDs in awe before focusing her attention towards the Christmas movies before coming across her favorite. She pulled it out with a triumphant 'aha' before half skipping back to the tv area. As she approached, Jughead was looking at her and in her best singy voice she goes, "I've got Home Alone!" as she holds up the movie proudly and Jughead laughs.

"Alright, pop that bad boy in."

As she put in the movie, Jughead took a bite of the garlic bread and a taste of the pasta. His mouth was watering and he moaned as he bit into it, "Damn, Betty. This is definitely the best garlic bread and alfredo I've had. I think I'm in love." Her laugh filled the room and Jughead swore he could listen to it forever.

/

When the movie was over, Jughead decided to strike up a conversation with her. "So, uh how did you and Ronnie meet?"

"It's actually kinda funny, we had our 10am together and on the first day, she literally walked up to me and decided that we'd be 'the best of friends' and we've been joined at the hip ever since." Betty was smiling at the memory of the most intimidating girl in the class approaching her with what turned out to be the most bubbly personality.

Jughead chuckled, "Yeah, sounds like Ronnie alright. Pretty sure that's how they ended up with me."

Betty looked over at him curiously, "Hm?"

His chuckles died down as he turned to her, "The Lodges adopted me when I was a little boy… nobody ever mentioned it?"

"No, they haven't. They do talk about you a lot though. They miss you."

Jughead looked at her face and was shocked that there wasn't any pity on her face, as most people tended to look at him with when they found out he was adopted. "I miss them too… there's just about myself that I couldn't figure out with them around."

Betty nodded and her eyes softened, "If you don't mind me asking, do you remember what your life was like before them?"

He laughed darkly, "Yea, yea I do. It was pretty bad, my dad was an angry drunk. It was hard to deal with but me and my mom managed, she protected me. One day, he got angry about something she did, I can never remember what, but I watched him literally beat her to death. I got sent to foster care after that and Ronnie went to the school I went to there. The foster family I was with… wasn't great. She decided to take me under her wings and we got close, one day I came in with a bruise from my fosterdad. I tried to hide it but that's pretty impossible with her. She told her parents and they throw a whole big storm about it and they decided to adopt me.I can't help but feel like they're in some way my guardian angels you know?"

Her face was soft as she listened to him tell his story. She felt happy that he had found his place in the world. "I'm happy that they found you, Juggie." she said as a yawn escaped her mouth.

He smiled at the nickname and couldn't find it in his heart to correct her. "Tired, Cooper?"

"Nope, not at all." She lied as another yawn escaped her mouth.

He let it go. They spent a few more minutes telling each other about their childhoods, he learned that Betty loved to fix cars with her dad and she learned that Jug and Ronnie had a siblings' rock band when they were 11. He knew she had a sister Polly that she loved and she knew that Ronnie literally broke the nose of his first girlfriend after she cheated on him. They talked until Betty fell asleep in the middle of his story about the time him and Ronnie got lost in an airport. He looked over at her sleeping form and smiled softly before getting up to place a blanket over her.

She looked so peaceful and Jughead wasn't sure exactly what came over him but he grazed his lips softly across her forehead, leaving a tingle on his lips.

He bit his lip as he walked away, slowly realizing he had a crush on his sister's best friend.


End file.
